Friday, January 4, 2008
Thunderbird Casino (Little Axe/Norman) Casino sinking fast
LITTLE AXE — Thunderbird Casino, mired in a two-year financial freefall, may not generate any profit for the Absentee Shawnee Tribe until the casino pays several overdue debts, the tribe's governor said in her resignation letter this week.
The situation is so bad, outgoing Gov. Jennifer Onzahwah wrote, that when a gambler won a $1,920 jackpot Friday, the casino couldn't pay the prize until the next day.
"The casino has been left in dire straits!” Onzahwah wrote.
Onzahwah resigned abruptly Monday, six months into her two-year term, saying Lt. Gov. Scott Miller and other elected officials had undermined her.
"I believe that I've put up with your defiant attitudes long enough,” she wrote in a letter obtained Thursday by The Oklahoman.
Miller released a statement Thursday confirming Onzahwah's resignation and his ascension to her post. However, the statement didn't address Onzahwah's claims.
"I will attempt to address challenges that the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma may be facing,” Miller said.
Downfall began in 2005
In early 2005, the future appeared bright for Thunderbird Casino and its owner tribe.
Oklahoma voters had just approved a state question that expanded gambling in tribal casinos. The Absentee Shawnees' casino, then known as Thunderbird Wild Wild West Casino, used dancing girls and a marketing blitz to attract gamblers by the thousands to its remote location on State Highway 9 near Lake Thunderbird.
In June 2005, a newly elected governor fired the self-promoting casino manager, ended the marketing campaign and took over its operations himself.
Profits plummeted. The freefall worsened with the 2006 openings of two nearby megacasinos. The Riverwind and FireLake Grand casinos, both owned by other tribes, depleted the Thunderbird Casino's customer base.
Absentee Shawnee members had begun counting on quarterly $250 checks, courtesy of the casino. Those payments stopped last spring.
The casino is required to pay 6 percent of its electronic machine proceeds and 23 percent from its card table profits as taxes to the tribe.
Those payments have dropped by about 60 percent since 2005, according to the tribe's monthly newsletters.
Onzahwah's letter indicates the payments are in further jeopardy.
"It looks like taxes will be the last thing to get paid because we're still 60 days overdue on accounts payable,” the former governor wrote.
Onzahwah said tribe officials should explore closing the casino's restaurant and laying off non-essential employees.
"More cuts will have to be made here at the (tribal) complex,” she wrote.
That assessment follows a two-week study of the situation by Onzahwah and the tribe's chief financial officer and attorney general.
Onzahwah placed much of the blame on Miller, who assumed the governor's job upon Onzahwah's resignation.
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